Longst 6+ lane surface road?

[webny99]

Everything in the Twin Cities combined doesn't even come close to matching some of the individual roads mentioned elsewhere in this thread.

Heck, everything in Upstate NY combined probably doesn't top 37 miles.
I wonder how long it would have taken for your OP example to arise organically if you hadn't mentioned it at the outset.

[Thunderbyrd316]

For California, I immediately thought of 19th Avenue in San Francisco (CA 1) and El Camino Real (CA 82). The 6 lane part of 19th Avenue + Crossover Drive is only 4 miles though.

CA 82 is a surface street arterial from San Francisco to San Jose, but surprisingly to me not all of it is 6 lanes. In Daly City just south of SF, it is only four lanes, but once it gets to Colma (Serramonte Blvd, maybe sooner), it is 6 lanes all the way to its terminus at I-880. If so that makes it a 6-lane surface road for at 40 miles or maybe more!

Maybe someone else can chime in about how much of CA 82 is six lanes or if there's any other notable candidates outside the Bay Area

El Camino Real was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. However, when I looked at satellite and Street View imagery, I was somewhat surprised to discover that quite a bit of this is actually still only 4 lanes. (One time back in the '80's me and my dad drove the whole way from Serramonte Blvd. in Colma to San Jose on Ca. 82 and even back then it took forever but it was interesting.) 

[NWI_Irish96]

Longest I can find in Indiana is 7.5 miles of US 31 in Southern Marion/Northern Johnson counties.

[US 89]

The longest I've been able to find in Utah is an 11.3 mile segment of State Street between South Temple and 8000 South in Salt Lake. I can't imagine anything else in the state would be longer.

[Avalanchez71]

Wondering what the longest stretch of surface (i.e. non-freeway) roadway is that is at least 6 through lanes.  One candidate would be US 19 from just north of FL 580 (where the freeway section outside Clearwater and St. Pete ends) to FL 50, just over 37 miles.

Any segments that are longer?

Florida State Road 7 (mostly US 441) has a longer 6-lane section, at 53½ miles; from the intersection with SR 704 / Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach continuously south to NW 177th Street in North Miami. There's almost no curves and nothing to dodge along the route. The lanes drop to four over I-95 at the Golden Glades Interchange complex. As the development is less dense north of US 98, and there's a lot more preserves, I don't think SR 7 will be widened in the immediate future.

That also brings up one of the longest continuous 8-lane sections I know of; SR 704 from South Dixie Highway (US 1) to a point a half-mile west of SR 7 is 9½ miles in length.

I can recall when SR 7 dropped to two lanes at the Broward/Palm Beach county line.

[formulanone]

Wondering what the longest stretch of surface (i.e. non-freeway) roadway is that is at least 6 through lanes.  One candidate would be US 19 from just north of FL 580 (where the freeway section outside Clearwater and St. Pete ends) to FL 50, just over 37 miles.

Any segments that are longer?

Florida State Road 7 (mostly US 441) has a longer 6-lane section, at 53½ miles; from the intersection with SR 704 / Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach continuously south to NW 177th Street in North Miami. There's almost no curves and nothing to dodge along the route. The lanes drop to four over I-95 at the Golden Glades Interchange complex. As the development is less dense north of US 98, and there's a lot more preserves, I don't think SR 7 will be widened in the immediate future.

That also brings up one of the longest continuous 8-lane sections I know of; SR 704 from South Dixie Highway (US 1) to a point a half-mile west of SR 7 is 9½ miles in length.

I can recall when SR 7 dropped to two lanes at the Broward/Palm Beach county line.

Until 2000 or so, much of it was solely two lanes north of SR 808. I remember two-lane sections south of there until 1992-93.

[djsekani]

I thought Southern California would have a ton of examples, but it turns out that the six-plus-lane segments on most roads aren't that long. Beach Blvd. (CA-39) is the best example I could find after a quick search, coming in at 20.75 miles.

[Eth]

Metro Atlanta doesn't perform as well here as I'd have thought it would. The best I can come up with is Buford Hwy (GA 13/partially US 23) from Lenox Rd to Oakcliff Rd, which is about 8 miles.

[TheStranger]

For California, I immediately thought of 19th Avenue in San Francisco (CA 1) and El Camino Real (CA 82). The 6 lane part of 19th Avenue + Crossover Drive is only 4 miles though.

CA 82 is a surface street arterial from San Francisco to San Jose, but surprisingly to me not all of it is 6 lanes. In Daly City just south of SF, it is only four lanes, but once it gets to Colma (Serramonte Blvd, maybe sooner), it is 6 lanes all the way to its terminus at I-880. If so that makes it a 6-lane surface road for at 40 miles or maybe more!

Maybe someone else can chime in about how much of CA 82 is six lanes or if there's any other notable candidates outside the Bay Area

El Camino Real was the first thing I thought of when I saw this thread. However, when I looked at satellite and Street View imagery, I was somewhat surprised to discover that quite a bit of this is actually still only 4 lanes. (One time back in the '80's me and my dad drove the whole way from Serramonte Blvd. in Colma to San Jose on Ca. 82 and even back then it took forever but it was interesting.) 

The 4-lane segment that is sandwiched by 6-lane segments is the rather rustic portion through Burlingame, mostly residential area with some pavement surface issues due to tree roots.  Probably the one portion of Route 82 that is most reminiscent of when that part of the road was US 101.

[plain]

I believe the longest such segment in Virginia is US 360 west out of Richmond, at around 14 miles give or take...

I was thinking US 250 between I-95 and just west of VA 288, but there's a very brief lane drop EB at Glenside Dr/I-64 and again both directions at I-64 Short Pump.

Also noteworthy is VA 143 in Newport News from just west (north) of I-664 to Glen Cove Ln.

US 58 in Norfolk & Virginia Beach between Ballentine Blvd and the US 58 BUS split could've been a contender but it has a 4-lane section with frontage roads in the area of I-64.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

[Flint1979]

Longest street with that many lanes for the longest span in the Detroit area would probably be Telegraph Road, part of US-24 which is at least six lanes from Elizabeth Lake Road in Pontiac to Eureka Road in Taylor, a distance of 32 miles.

[webny99]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Dallas Ave or Blvd? Where is it located? 

Longest street with that many lanes for the longest span in the Detroit area would probably be Telegraph Road, part of US-24 which is at least six lanes from Elizabeth Lake Road in Pontiac to Eureka Road in Taylor, a distance of 32 miles.

Already mentioned, I believe it was within the first 10-15 replies.

[Flint1979]

8 Mile Rd., on the northern border of Detroit, is a divided surface road that is 3 or more lanes each way from Grand River Ave. to the west to I-94 to the east, a distance of 20.7 miles.

Lot of 6+ lane roads in metro Detroit as well. It looks like Telegraph has you beat, since it's 6+ lanes from Elizabeth Lake Rd in Pontiac to the I-75 connector in Taylor, a distance of 31.9 miles.

I genuinely didn't believe it until I mapped the two endpoints. It really is incredible how sprawling and just massive, area-wise, the Detroit metro area is. There is no other city in the US in which you could drive 32 straight miles like that on a surface street and still be in the same urbanized area. That's just slightly less mileage than downtown Baltimore to downtown DC.

I never thought of the Detroit metro area being that big area wise it's mainly just three counties (Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) but as far as Telegraph goes it runs through the longest length of the metro area. Another long street in the Detroit area is 12 Mile Road which runs straight for 32 miles from Beck Road in Wixom to Jefferson Avenue in St. Clair Shores, west of Beck Road it's discontinuous until it ends for good at Milford Road about 5 miles west of Beck. I don't think that 12 Mile is ever six lanes though, just a really long street.

Detroit is the 9th largest urban area by area though in the U.S. which is kind of surprising. In some areas on Telegraph though those lanes are really needed especially in the area between 12 Mile and the Mixing Bowl which has a VPD count of around 90,000. The reason that Telegraph Road runs the coarse it does btw is because it was built along side the Telegraph lines that ran from Dearborn to the south which is why it's named Telegraph Road.

[Flint1979]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Dallas Ave or Blvd? Where is it located? 

Longest street with that many lanes for the longest span in the Detroit area would probably be Telegraph Road, part of US-24 which is at least six lanes from Elizabeth Lake Road in Pontiac to Eureka Road in Taylor, a distance of 32 miles.

Already mentioned, I believe it was within the first 10-15 replies.

I see that now but it's still probably the best example in the Detroit area, can't think of another one in Michigan and Telegraph's stretch isn't 37 miles so Michigan doesn't have that beat. I can't even think of one in my city that has six lanes for any stretch, a weird example is M-58 starts out at on a set of one way streets at I-675 and has three lanes for the westbound street and two for the eastbound street, they merge together about a quarter of a mile west of Saginaw city limits to run on a two way street but they keep the same number of lanes they had as the one way street with a turn lane, so you have three lanes westbound, a turn lane and two lanes eastbound on the two way stretch.

[kphoger]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Why?  Is there a really long six-lane surface road there?  If so, what is it and how long?

[X99]

My first thought on this was "China will probably have it." But it's really hard to look when Google Maps doesn't line up with Google Maps Satellite for that country only. And everything I found so far was four lanes or limited access.

[skluth]

My first thought on this was "China will probably have it." But it's really hard to look when Google Maps doesn't line up with Google Maps Satellite for that country only. And everything I found so far was four lanes or limited access.

I was actually thinking something in the Middle East like Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Some of those long freeways might be more like some Western state interstates where there is some access to the highways. However, the few I checked the access was still right on/off.

[US 89]

This depends on whether we allow roads with a few scattered interchanges but by-and-large are at-grade, and whether we allow it to be 4 lanes through an interchange with the rest on frontage roads. If those situations are OK, TX 6/FM 1960 appears to qualify from Gordon Street in Alvin all the way around to FM 1960 Business in Humble, a distance of 74.7 miles.

[Plutonic Panda]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Why?  Is there a really long six-lane surface road there?  If so, what is it and how long?

I'll have to look more into it but it seems Dallas has some pretty long 6 lane surface roads. I would think it would be a strong contender for the longest six lane surface road in an urban area.

[kphoger]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Why?  Is there a really long six-lane surface road there?  If so, what is it and how long?

I'll have to look more into it but it seems Dallas has some pretty long 6 lane surface roads. I would think it would be a strong contender for the longest six lane surface road in an urban area.

The OP has one at 37 miles, and you can drive clear across the city of Dallas in less than that.  Heck, downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth is less than 37 miles.

[Mark68]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Why?  Is there a really long six-lane surface road there?  If so, what is it and how long?

I’ll have to look more into it but it seems Dallas has some pretty long 6 lane surface roads. I would think it would be a strong contender for the longest six lane surface road in an urban area.

The OP has one at 37 miles, and you can drive clear across the city of Dallas in less than that.  Heck, downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth is less than 37 miles.

Preston Rd (TX 289) comes close. From Loop 12/Northwest Hwy to Frontier Pkwy is about 30 miles. That was the first street that came to mind from the little time I spent in Dallas.

[kphoger]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Why?  Is there a really long six-lane surface road there?  If so, what is it and how long?

I'll have to look more into it but it seems Dallas has some pretty long 6 lane surface roads. I would think it would be a strong contender for the longest six lane surface road in an urban area.

The OP has one at 37 miles, and you can drive clear across the city of Dallas in less than that.  Heck, downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth is less than 37 miles.

Preston Rd (TX 289) comes close. From Loop 12/Northwest Hwy to Frontier Pkwy is about 30 miles. That was the first street that came to mind from the little time I spent in Dallas.

If everyone is OK with pretending it doesn't narrow to 4 lanes at the SRT...

[Mark68]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned Dallas.

Why?  Is there a really long six-lane surface road there?  If so, what is it and how long?

I’ll have to look more into it but it seems Dallas has some pretty long 6 lane surface roads. I would think it would be a strong contender for the longest six lane surface road in an urban area.

The OP has one at 37 miles, and you can drive clear across the city of Dallas in less than that.  Heck, downtown Dallas to downtown Fort Worth is less than 37 miles.

Preston Rd (TX 289) comes close. From Loop 12/Northwest Hwy to Frontier Pkwy is about 30 miles. That was the first street that came to mind from the little time I spent in Dallas.

If everyone is OK with pretending it doesn't narrow to 4 lanes at the SRT...

I had considered that, but the fact that it splits into the two through lanes in each direction and two lanes to access the tollway's frontage roads (which also are through lanes--a total of 4 actual through lanes in each direction), I counted those as part of the 6+ lane configuration.

[Bruce]

The longest in Washington: SR 99 between Mercer Street and I-5 in Everett, clocking in at 22 miles. It could be extended all the way down to Federal Way if the downtown tunnel wasn't 4 lanes wide.